Having started playing on my Xbox 360 for the first time in *ages*, it has got me thinking about "retro". Playing on my 360 feels a little bit retro to me; the system is twelve years old and I've been playing on current gen (PS4) for four years. I know that some folk won't agree... but I think of the 360 as being retro now .

Oh, and I've only just though about this... but the 360 allows external USB hard drives to be connected now, doesn't it? I'm short on space on my machine's internal drive and I think I have an old USB drive I could plug in.

jawafour wrote:Having started playing on my Xbox 360 for the first time in *ages*, it has got me thinking about "retro". Playing on my 360 feels a little bit retro to me; the system is twelve years old and I've been playing on current gen (PS4) for four years. I know that some folk won't agree... but I think of the 360 as being retro now .

Oh, and I've only just though about this... but the 360 allows external USB hard drives to be connected now, doesn't it? I'm short on space on my machine's internal drive and I think I have an old USB drive I could plug in.

I wouldn't consider that retro, no. Even having said I'm collecting PS3 games now, I still don't consider it retro. For me it's the generation before the last one, so I would consider PS2, GC and Xbox to be retro these days, but other people have their own definitions.

As for the HDD I believe you're right that the 360 allows you to use one. You should be able to use it for game installs, saves and other downloads if I remember correctly.

Don't think the 360 is retro - but I was reminded how good a deals you can get on one generation old games today. Wanted to pick up some other Atlus games having been loving Persona 5. Went and bought Catherine for 360. Admittedly it was £10 but it looks great. Was nice to blow dust off the old machine. I'm always glad when I genuinely find a reason to play one of my old consoles. Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii and Beyond Good and Evil for GC are in line to get played next as well.

Pedro wrote:Don't think the 360 is retro - but I was reminded how good a deals you can get on one generation old games today...

Now is a brilliant time to pick-up 360 and PS3 games because most of the public think those machines are old, rubbish and/or un-cool. Everyone is chucking that stuff out in favour of current gen gear. I recall the late 90s when the SNES and Mega Drive experienced a similar phenomenon!

If a disk was stored under perfect conditions it is likely it still works today. But if it was banned to the attic, with hot summers and cold winters, chances are the coating has already been damaged. High humidity might have caused mould. Our recommendation is: get the data off these floppies sooner than later

Saigon Slick wrote:Any Glasgow based forumites been into Shmup recently? They recently joined with the vinyl seller next door to them presumably to save on rent costs - I've only ever managed to find the strawberry floater open once though, which is very frustrating.

Aye Shmup is a good wee shop. Not been in since it moved, but I like it.

Saigon Slick wrote:Any Glasgow based forumites been into Shmup recently? They recently joined with the vinyl seller next door to them presumably to save on rent costs - I've only ever managed to find the strawberry floater open once though, which is very frustrating.

Aye Shmup is a good wee shop. Not been in since it moved, but I like it.

It's never strawberry floating open! Five times in five weeks I've been and it's been shut every time.

I was getting very frustrated with the controls to begin with as it seemed so fiddly and a couple of attempts at the first Colossus were not very successful at all as I was constantly being thrown off and stamped on, but then it clicked!

Realised the key to it all was simply resting that climb button and letting the pink stamina circle refill. Now I can properly enjoy it, two colossi down, just working out the third one... his armour is brittle apparently

Saigon Slick wrote:Any Glasgow based forumites been into Shmup recently? They recently joined with the vinyl seller next door to them presumably to save on rent costs - I've only ever managed to find the strawberry floater open once though, which is very frustrating.

Aye Shmup is a good wee shop. Not been in since it moved, but I like it.

It's never strawberry floating open! Five times in five weeks I've been and it's been shut every time.

Send the wee guy a Facebook message and ask when he’s open. He’s good at getting back to you.

Saigon Slick wrote:Any Glasgow based forumites been into Shmup recently? They recently joined with the vinyl seller next door to them presumably to save on rent costs - I've only ever managed to find the strawberry floater open once though, which is very frustrating.

Aye Shmup is a good wee shop. Not been in since it moved, but I like it.

It's never strawberry floating open! Five times in five weeks I've been and it's been shut every time.

Send the wee guy a Facebook message and ask when he’s open. He’s good at getting back to you.

I did that before and he was like "here's my opening hours"

I'll catch him eventually. Just want to see if he's got any decent N64 stock tbh.

My first SNES purchase in 2018, and it's a brand new, semi-official SNES game released today!

One of my favourites - Joe & Mac Caveman Ninja 1,2 and 3.

I only ever played 1 at the time of release, and the sequels go for a fortune, so this is a dream for me. I randomly spotted it about 4 months ago, pre-ordered it, forgot about it, and it arrived today. It's officially licensed by the games' original publisher

Thunder blade is, well, it sucks, but it was more playable than I was expecting. With continues, on Easy (it's although checking if there is a difficulty mode on these old dodgy low fps games with cheap deaths), with 7 lives, I made it passed the 2nd boss. Just the 2nd level is ridiculous navigating through caves with gooseberry fool flying at you all the time, in essentially first person. OK, not great, but £4 so not the end of the world in terms of outlay.

Lylat wars, much better. Really fun. My favorite is the land master (tank) level so far. The stupid noises, the music that in a very backwards way recalls memories of Smash 64 because we played on the Corneria level a lot. Wanted to try the game but wasn't sure I would get on with it because Starfox (SNES) is so hard and like 5fps. Glad I picked it up cheap, I guess it goes for little cart only because people are looking for the big box with rumble pack or nothing. I might complete it, dunno.

Indie also had Front Mission 3 that caught my eye. Are the old games recommendable? £16. I heard about the new spiritual successor and liked the sound of the gameplay and setting (mechs etc).

Recently saw Taz Express going mint for £75 . Need to get shot of that gooseberry fool, to fund other purchases. I'm liking how affordable some of the very available carts and less well known / meh games are available for, mostly due to people looking for boxed 64 collections and stone cold classics!

Proud of my copy of alasia dragoon though. A short, underrated, hidden gem of a game, but really enjoyable in short runs and great production value. Sprites, music and gameplay all generally right and fun. Play throughs may not very a great deal, but it's almost impossible to beat without finding every single thunder power up. I still haven't beat it. You can also vary gameplay a fair bit by using different dragon accomplices (you have 4 you can switch between). And it looks mint on my PVM.

GF's recently found N64 boxes, including the console with gold controller so somewhere for that to live now (my green n64 works better), means we have 13 boxed items now:

AndyXL wrote:Yeah - great little extra treats in the box...shame we don't get that for Switch releases ...

One or two Switch games have some decent packaging; I have the UK version of Nicalis' Binding of Isaac Afterbirth + and it comes with a colour manual and stickers (and great cover artwork) and the USA version of Nicalis' The End is Nigh with a colour manual, a (very small) plastic character and equally cool cover art. They're pretty swell!

Green Gecko wrote:...Glad I picked (Lylat Wars) up cheap, I guess it goes for little cart only because people are looking for the big box with rumble pack or nothing...

The most expensive version is, ironically, the small (standard) black box version (i.e. not the small silver Players Choice re-release). It was available in small quantities as most folk went for that big box version that included a rumble pack and guide book. But, yeah, loose carts are pretty common... still nice to have, though .

Green Gecko wrote:...GF's recently found N64 boxes, including the console with gold controller so somewhere for that to live now (my green n64 works better), means we have 13 boxed items now...

Great work on discovering the boxes, Gecko (and Ms Gecko!). It sounds like you're building a cool collection of N64 gear. That green N64 console always looks great!

It irks me that 2 games in my ps2 collection are the black and silver platinum re-releases (bought online so didn't know beforehand) as they're both pretty cheap i'm thinking about getting the original versions to make them match. Am i being too picky?